Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who was arrested outside of El Paso, was sentenced to life in prison on drug trafficking charges in New York, authorities said.
Zambada was sentenced to life in prison on one count each of racketeering conspiracy and one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise during a Monday, July 20, hearing in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, court records show.
He pleaded guilty to the two charges on Aug. 25, 2025, as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Zambada spoke briefly during the hearing, taking responsibility for the harm his actions had caused, Reuters reported.
“No one wins in a war like this,” Zambada said. “To the next generation, I say, choose a different path.”
U.S. District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan also ordered Zambada to pay $15 billion in forfeiture for his role as the leader of the notorious and dangerous Sinaloa drug cartel.
“Today, narco-trafficker El Mayo was sentenced to life in prison, marking the end of his reign over the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and deadly drug cartels in history,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a statement. “He will never again inflict carnage, corrupt public officials, or traffic deadly drugs into our communities that ruin Americans and their families.
“El Mayo’s conviction is historic, and it reflects the Justice Department’s commitment to the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations that threaten American lives. To those who remain: we will find you, we will prosecute you, and you, too, will face substantial time in prison.”
Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of the Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, were arrested July 25, 2024, by U.S. Marshals at a Dona Ana County private airport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a small town bordering El Paso.
U.S. Western District of Texas in El Paso was originally overseeing the case, but it was transferred to New York. The transfer was because Zambada had been facing several charges for years in the Eastern District of New York. The plea agreement allowed Zambada to resolve both cases in New York and the Western District of Texas.
“The sentencing of Zambada Garcia to life in federal prison is a landmark moment in the fight against transnational criminal organizations,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons said in a statement. “This administration has made the total elimination of cartels a national priority because Mexican drug cartels are a multifaceted threat to the American way of life.
“Today’s sentencing is yet another example of our commitment to accomplishing that goal. The Western District of Texas is literally on the front lines of that fight, and our AUSAs and support staff will continue to wake up every day and do the next right thing on behalf of the American people just as they did in this case and so many cases like it.”
Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in December as part of a plea agreement, federal court records show. A sentencing date has not been set.
Guzman Lopez admitted to kidnapping Zambada in an effort to win credit from U.S. law enforcement, New York federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella told reporters after Zambada’s sentencing, Reuters reported.
“The United States made perfectly clear that we do not condone kidnapping and that he would receive no credit,” Nocella said.
Who is El Mayo Zambada?
Zambada was the co-founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel with co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. The drug cartel “since approximately the late 1980s has imported lethal quantities of narcotics — including, among others, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl — into the United States and laundered billions of dollars in drug proceeds back to Mexico,” U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said in a news release.
Under Zambada’s leadership, the drug cartel “regularly used brutal violence, intimidation, and murder to silence potential witnesses and dissuade law enforcement from performing its duties,” the news release states. “Zambada Garcia has operated with impunity at the highest levels of the Mexican drug trafficking world while being assured of his continued success and safety from arrest through his payment of bribes to Mexican government officials and law enforcement officers.”
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: ‘El Mayo’ Zambada sentenced to life in prison in Sinaloa cartel case
Reporting by Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
